Category: Blog

The Net Promoter Score is a proven, powerful metric used globally to measure customer engagement and advocacy levels. It establishes the likelihood of a customer to recommend a product or service on a scale of 0-10.

Each time a person has their vehicle repaired by us, we send them a survey asking them a few questions about how their experience was with us, but mainly one question at the end:

“How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?”.

Our customers then send back a response with a number of 1-10. 1-6 represent what are know as “Detractors”, or people who have had a bad experience with us and are likely not to return. 7-8 represents people known as “Passives”, or people who are happy with our service but wouldn’t necessarily promote us. And then finally, 9-10 are “Promoters”, or people who are highly likely to recommend us to others.

This question gives us an idea of how we performed in the eyes of our customer, and our retention statistics as well.

With a score of 97, our customers are extremely likely to recommend us to other people. To put this into perspective, lots of large scale companies use NPS, and Amazon’s NPS score is only 68!

So next time you know someone in need of repairs, send them our way as you know we operate at above industry standards!

Major car brand dealers would have you believe that your car can only be serviced by them in order to not void your warranty. But independent service centres would have you believe that they can repair your car without voiding the new car warranty. So which is correct?

Long story short….you can service your car wherever you’d like. However, there are a few other things to take into consideration when considering a service centre during your new car warranty.

The Competition and Consumer Act 2010 is what protects a customers rights to freely choose their service centre after the purchase of a new car. It prevents the practice of attaching restrictions to the sale of a vehicle as to where the car has to be serviced during the warranty period. Essentially this means that a car manufacturer cannot void your new car warranty based purely on where you chose to get it serviced.

However, a manufacturer can refuse a warranty claim if there is evidence of use of non-genuine parts, lack of maintenance or poor or inappropriate work practices as a result of having it serviced elsewhere.

An independent service centre also cannot perform warranty work. They will most likely not have access to the latest technical information, special service tools, factory tools and complete service information. In addition to this, specific and dedicated electronic equipment and updates are regularly required for services, which may not be available from the independent centres.

When it comes to choosing where to take your vehicle for its warranty services, cost is often what makes people go elsewhere. Although a manufacturer service centre may cost more, it is important to consider the benefits they will provide over a smaller, independent chain. If your priority is cost, then you may jeopardize the quality of work performed; whereas if your priority is quality, you will likely pay more for your service.

Let’s start by looking at the different types of fuel available. Now bare in mind we are only talking about unleaded petrol here, as it is obviously the only one that you can choose from a selection. From lowest to highest grade, we have: – E10 – 91 – 95 – 98

E10 – E10 is a 10% ethanol mix of alcohol-based fuel which aims to reduce the environmental impacts of using fuel, compared to its standard unleaded counterparts. It is typically the cheapest type of fuel you can buy, but because of its alcohol base, it burns quicker, resulting in less efficiency or mileage.

91 – Next we have your regular unleaded 91 petrol. This is definitely the most popular fuel type in Australia, mostly due to the fact that he majority of cars accept this as the standard minimum and because of it cheaper price point.

95 – The first type of petrol available in the premium range is Unleaded 95, which is a much cleaner type of fuel than 91. It reduces the amount of carbon deposits in your engine, resulting in improved efficiency.

98 – Then finally, we have 98 premium unleaded, which is the highest grade fuel that typically only high performance or luxury cars, as well as direct injection engines require.

Now there is no way that we can clearly give you an answer as to what your car needs, but there are some pretty simple ways to be able to find out. On the inside of your fuel tank, it will have a label indicating the minimum grade or octant type of fuel that your car requires….or it can also be found in your owners manual.

Now let’s say that you have a Toyota Corolla and your car states that it requires 91 octane fuel….you can use 91, 95 & 98 fuel types in your car. However, studies have shown that using a higher grade fuel that your car does not require, provides negligible improvements, as the price of the higher grade fuel essentially nullifies the benefit.

But what you can’t do is use a lesser grade fuel than what your car requires. So let’s say you own a new Ferrari, this is probably going to require 98 octane fuel. If you use anything less than 98, you will quickly destroy your engine and do all sorts of other damage to your car.

So essentially, if your car says that is needs 91, it’s probably the best choice for your next fill up. After all, the cat manufacturer knows your car better than the fuel companies, right?

Here we have presented a list of 5 common car myths that you have been taught throughout your life, that aren’t always true.

A car is never the same after an accident:This myth only exists because YOU know about it. 99.9% of people who see your car after an accident will never know that it has ever been in one. It is the same feeling you get when someone else drives your car…it doesn’t matter if they didn’t adjust anything, you still feel the need to correct everything afterwards. It just *feels* different. We car repair specialists go into extreme detail to repair your car to as close to new as possible, the only real difference might be an aftermarket part or two.

Cold engines need to be warmed up first before driving:This myth is kind of true and kind of false depending how you’re thinking of driving it. It is true that a car doesn’t operate at full capacity until it is warm, however, the quickest way to warm up your car is to get driving. Sitting in the car in your driveway is wasting extra time trying to warm it up by just idling. So unless you’re preparing for a race, just turn it on and get moving!

Automatic transmissions burn more fuel than Manual transmissions:This may have been true once upon a time when auto transmissions came into market. However, these days with features such as cruise control and continuously variable transmission, sometimes automatic transmission can actually be more fuel efficient. Overall, it may still apply to some vehicles, however, it is not as simple as a general blanket rule anymore.

It is safer to drive with your doors unlocked in the case of needing rescue in an accident:This kind of does make sense, however, the negatives far outweigh the positives in this myth. AT the end of the day, if you are in need of rescuing after an accident, emergency services will literally do WHATEVER it takes to get to you, so you’re covered there. Leaving your doors unlocked actually leaves you more susceptible to injury if the doors come open during the accident, or theft if stopped somewhere like traffic lights.

Bigger cars are safer in an accident than smaller cars: We can understand the thinking behind this myth, as ideally you would like to have more space/material between you and the object right? Wrong. Studies have suggested that when directly comparing the vehicles size and weight in a car accident, the difference is negligible. In fact, smaller cars are generally more safer in an accident because of better safety features.

Don’t worry if you believed some of these myths, they are called common myths for a reason.